I wrote a piece for Monday's paper that features particularly memorable quotes from many columns in 2005. In the past, finding room for those quotes was always a tough job, and many of them simply ended up going unused.

But this year, doggone it, I've got a blog. So here are some more quotes from a busy 2005, touching on the crows in Auburn and the transformation of the Dunk & Bright Building in downtown Syracuse and the battle over a new Walgreens in Eastwood and the raising of Wilmeth Sidat-Singh's jersey in the Carrier Dome ... and much more:

Jan. 14 - "There's probably no animal on Earth whose social structure is so
similar to that of Western humans." - Kevin McGowan, an ornithologist at Cornell University, speaking of the intelligence and habits of the crows that flock to downtown Auburn at night.

Jan. 21 - "Let me ask you, who would you rather go bowling with, SpongeBob and his friends or (Dr.) James Dobson? Who would you rather go out with
and have a few beers? Probably the only common ground I have with .... James Dobson is that I haven't seen the video, and I'll bet he hasn't either. All he knows (here Kenny dropped into an angry backwoods voice) is that it's a little yellow guy full of holes who's saying it's OK for men to be with men.” - Tom Kenny, East Syracuse native and the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants, after Dobson accused SpongeBob of taking part in a “pro-homosexual” video.

(And yes, I used part of the quote in the daily paper, but to do it justice really demands seeing the whole thing.)

Jan 28 - "I've got a snowblower and it's not going to kill me to push it." – Ed Mangan of Hawley Avenue in Syracuse, on why he spontaneously clears sidewalks and driveways for elderly neighbors whenever it snows.

Feb. 21 - "I've gone through a heck of a lot of bulbs." - Bill Brown of Cicero, a retired teacher who began the “Lights for Peace” campaign during the first Gulf War. Brown encourages Americans to burn simple electric candles in their windows as evidence of their concern whenever servicemen and women are in dangers overseas, which means he's kept them burning for years.

Feb. 26 - "You're so happy to see this progress, but it makes you remember all
the doors that weren't open and the opportunities that weren't there
for you." – Donald “Peewee” Caldwell, a retired Syracuse postal worker and the first black basketball player at LeMoyne College, just before the jersey of his childhood idol – Wilmeth Sidat-Singh – was finally raised above the basketball court at the Carrier Dome.

Sidat-Singh, an African-American, starred in both football and basketball at SU in the 1930s. But he also endured many slights and humiliations, including being unable to sleep in the same dormitories as his white teammmates. On Feb. 27, in the presence of Sidat-Singh’s 92-year-old aunt, the university raised his jersey and made some long-overdue amends.

March 11 - "We've been displaced. We know what it's like." – Tadadaho Sid Hill of the Onondaga Nation in explaining a promise that his people – even if successful in a court action to regain aboriginal land – would never evict existing homeowners.

March 14 - "If I lived in Syracuse, I'd build a big snowflake on the interstate,
kind of like the arch in St. Louis, and I'd have it be the entrance to
the city. Cars would have to drive underneath it, and it could say, ‘Welcome to the Snowiest Big City in the World.'” – Meteorologist Peter Chaston, whose reseach shows that Syracuse receives the most snow of any city with 100,000 people or more on the planet.

March 25 - "We will see her again." – Syracuse Common Councilor Tommy Seals, recalling how his family’s faith in God helped to overcome despair following the murder of Tommy's great-niece, Chiarra Seals. Police charged Brian Shaw, the father of Chiarra's’young daughter, with the killing.

May 16 - "The exterior of the building has lost its character. The significant aspects of the facade are painted over. The bones of the building are extraordinarily good, and the skin of this building is not very good. We're going to change that. We're going to reveal and maintain the bones of the building and we're going to transform the skin of the building." – Richard Gluckman, internationally-renowned architect, on his design for the old Dunk & Bright warehouse in downtown Syracuse. It is now Syracuse University classroom and gallery space.

June 20 - "If you've been waiting for a motive, something to be alarmed about,
something to be angry about, this is it. This is not normal. This is
not acceptable. Anyone that knows about this, anyone that reads about
this, should be appalled.” – Frank Fowler, deputy police chief in Syracuse, calling for community fury after a 2-year-old was critically injured when at least one gunman opened fire on a house.

June 24 - "If there isn't a price on them, nobody picks them up. A lot of people come through here picking up (returnable) bottles, but they just leave (other containers) there. After a while, it gets to look like a garbage dump." – Larry Rutledge, president of the Elmwood Park Association, on his frustration with legislative resistance in Albany to expanding the returnable bottle bill to cover "sports drink" and plastic water bottles.

Nov. 28 - "Never settle, always push." – Tom Samuels, an urban planner with the city of Chicago, offering advice to Eastwood neighbors who wanted Walgreens to design a new James Street drugstore in a way that meshed with the neighborhood. In the end, Walgreens budged, but not as much as neighbors hoped.

Dec. 8 - "There was going to be a secret Beatles reunion concert, with everyone except Paul (McCartney, estranged at the time from the other Beatles) in the theater at the Everson. One of my jobs was to get equipment ready, and have it ready, secretly." – David Ross, well-known curator of several national museums, on the almost-reunion of several members of the most famous rock band in history on John Lennon's birthday in Syracuse in 1971.

Dec. 16 - "Here we have a portion of Syracuse finally getting with it about what should be going on with windows and doors and entrances on this new Walgreens and then we've got this huge development that's going to go up on the North Side, and there's almost no dialogue about (how) it will look." – Dennis Connors, curator for the Onondaga Historical Association, wondering aloud why the public has yet to see detailed models of the first phase of the proposed Carousel Center expansion.